Dollyween in rainy desert wrapup

The thing about Arizona's Sonoran Desert is that it almost never rains.

Except, of course, this year it rained on Halloween night, during the peak of trick-or-treating.

Boo!

Still, it was a mostly successful evening. This year's theme, as promised, was Dollyween: giving new books to trick-or-treaters of all ages in memory of children's literacy advocate and millions-of-books-benefactor Dolly Parton. (Read more about this general initative at Books for Treats.)

Giving out books in the rain is not ideal, but Joan and I made it work by setting up in the garage and having plastic bags available to wrap the books.

The turnout was a bit depressed by the weather. I counted about 70 trick-or-treaters, down from a little more than 100 last year. The most popular costume, once again, was princess. That was followed, in order of popularity, by fairy, devil/grim reaper and cheerleader. We also had multiple Marios. Other recognizable (to me) costumes of note included Minion, firefighter, Grogu, Ewok, plague doctor, cat, naval officer, Superman, skeleton, Negan, zombie, security guard, Pennywise (Skarsgård version), sheep, chicken, cow, werewolf and policewoman with (actual live) Chihuahua.

There was a wide range of reactions to the book giveaway. (We also had little bags of Utz pretzels so they could go away with something to munch on.) Some quotes and anecdotes from letting the trick-or-treaters pick new books:

• "My mom said I should start reading."
• "I have to read books to finish my homework for first grade"
• [holds up book and shakes it at me] "What do I do with it?"
• "No thank you."
• "Can I have two?"
• The Magic Tree House series remains popular, and some older kids looked upon them nostalgically
• "How many books? Just one?" [She left with Charlotte's Web and Beezus and Ramona]
• Two high-school-age boys snagged The Haunting of Hill House
• Toward the end, two high-school-age girls each took multiple books and seemed very happy

Here are some more photos from the Dollyween festivities...

Halfway through trick-or-treating this little friend showed up. 

(Fortunately, there were no kids around at that moment.) 

I gently directed it to the backyard, where supper as usual was served.

My favorite Halloween posts from over the years

All Hallows' Eve greetings to one and all!

I hope your neighborhoods are filled with safe and happy trick-or-treaters tonight. As you prepare to greet the little ghosts and ghouls at the door, here, for your reading pleasure, are some of my favorite Papergreat Halloween- and horror-themed blog posts, dating all the way back to 2011.  

From 2011: It's nothing a little Witch Cream won't cure

From 2011: Clowns. Why'd it have to be clowns? 

From 2011: Witches and zombies and scarecrows! Oh my!

From 2012: Horrifying ephemeral images that will haunt you this Halloween

From 2013: Which movies gave you the biggest fright?

From 2014: Scholastic Fest: #12, Witch in the House

From 2015: Joyful Hallowe'en: Mild Fear 2015 begins with a vintage postcard

From 2015: Vintage Halloween postcard: The Witch (Julius Bien)

From 2015: Questions, answers & mysteries with Hookland's David Southwell (Part 1)

From 2016: Found photo: She's waiting for someone to throw flowers with

From 2016: Book cover: "Galaxy of Ghouls"

From 2016: Vintage Halloween postcard: "Make a ring of pumpkin seeds..."

From 2017: 1969 Jersey Devil postcard illustrated by Ed Sheetz

From 2017: Vintage postcard: A Jolly Hallowe'en; plus, links to other spooky cards

From 2017: Have a very Baba Yaga Halloween

From 2018: Book of Forbidden Knowledge

From 2019: Book cover: "Haunted Britain"

From 2019: Spooky Tuck & Sons Hallowe'en postcard mailed in 1910

From 2019: Book cover: "Haunted England"

From 2020: Mr. Bill & the Beistle cat

From 2020: Remembering "Alfred Hitchcock's Haunted Houseful"

From 2020: I told you there would be dolls

From 2021: Where does this Kodak snapshot rank on the Mild Fear scale?

From 2021: Nostalgia lane: "Lonesome Ghosts" on the Fisher-Price Movie Viewer

From 2021: 1977's "Supermonsters" and 1920's "Der Golem"

From 2021: 1977 children's book about actual (maybe) haunted house

From 2021: Alan Ormsby's 1970s: Summoning zombies and a Scholastic book

(2021 is maybe the best overall year of Halloween posts, check them all out at Mild Fear 2021)

From 2022: Adolf Born's groovy title illustrations for "The Girl on a Broomstick"

From 2023: Photos of Sutton, West Virginia, and the Flatwoods Monster Museum

From 2024: Hans Holzer's "The Psychic World of Plants"

From 2024: Book cover: "Will Eisner's Gleeful Guide to Occult Cookery"

From 2024: Intellivision's "Night Stalker," my first survival horror video game

From 2024: Triad and Stevie and witches, oh my

From 2025: Realms of the uncanny: Dreamcore, backrooms & liminal spaces

From 2025: Book cover: "A Dream of Dracula" — plus other vampire stuff

From 2025: Milkwalker knows where you live

From 2025: VHS tapes are improbably popular again, with horror leading the way

From 2025: Obscure book: "Gabby's Magic Brooms" take on U.S. car culture

From 2026: Book cover: Ida Chittum's "Tales of Terror" (1975)

From 2026: After decades, my final mystery has been solved

Look at those 1971 prices for Halloween sweets

Browsing through the newspapers of yore, I came across these two advertisements for Halloween sweets from 55 years ago, in 1971. Look how low those prices are! Meanwhile, in modern day, prices for candy have risen 7.7% in one year and more than 18% over the past two years, according to federal data and as reported by NPR. That's one way to fight cavities, I guess, by making chocolate unaffordable.

First up is this advertisement for cookies and cupcakes at the Federal Bake Shop in Lancaster, Pa., from the October 26, 1971, Lancaster Intelligencer Journal. Twelve cents for a cupcake! And if you buy two dozen you get the third dozen for free! (Federal Bake Shop opened in 1925 and closed its doors for good sometime in the late 1970s.)

This advertisement for Halloween candy at Woolworth is from the October 28, 1971, Lancaster New Era. You can click it on it to see a larger version and see the low, low prices on all that name-brand chocolate. Woolworth went out of business nationally in 1997.

Georgess McHargue meets werewolves and witches

Writer Georgess McHargue (1941-2011) had a pretty amazing 70 years on Earth. In addition to writing numerous fiction and nonfiction books, she was an editor, poet, book reviewer, gardener and animal lover, among other things. According to her obituary, "Her political activism began with protesting the Viet Nam war, segregation, and continued through her life as she stood firmly against all social injustice and repression of freedom everywhere." She married a blue-eyed archaeologist, Michael, whose interests dovetailed perfectly with her own.

When she died, she'd had breast cancer for 16 years. Per her obituary: "She detested the notion of 'battling' cancer, and decided she'd rather dance."

I couldn't find a complete bibliography of the 35 books that she wrote. I know the list includes the well-regarded 1975 novel Stoneflight, which mixes magic with a teenage girl's struggle to deal with her parents' marital problems. Here's an compelling Betsy Bird review of the book.

In 1972 she published The Impossible People: A History Natural and Unnatural of Beings Terrible and Wonderful, which, years ago, was the first book of hers that I encountered.

And she wrote three books for The Eerie Series, looking specifically at "monsters" through the lens of folklore and history: Meet the Werewolf, Meet the Vampire and Meet the Witches.

I have the werewolf and witches volumes. The vampire seems to be a little tougher to track down.

While monsters weren't entirely Georgess' jam — she was a serious historian whose skepticism about the supernatural is perhaps best conveyed in her 1972 book Facts, Frauds, and Phantasms: A Survey of the Spiritualist Movement — I do want to write a little bit about her two "Eerie Series" books today for Halloween.

• Meet the Werewolf
• First published in 1976. This is the second printing of the J.B. Lippincott paperback.
• Drawings by Stephen Gammell (plus numerous historical illustrations).
• Cover design by Jean Krulis
• Dedication: "This book is for Traci, even though she has now given up werewolves for dolphins."
• Warning on first page: "This is a scary book. Werewolves are supposed to be monsters that eat people, and it is impossible to write about them without some blood and gore. So if you like monsters and enjoy being a little scared, read on. But if you don't like the dark and always think something is looking in your window, this may not be the book for you."
• Chapter titles: 1. What Is a Werewolf? 2. How to Tell a Werewolf When You See One. 3. How to Become a Werewolf. 4. How to Get Rid of a Werewolf. 5. Relatives of the Werewolf. 6. Jean Grenier, the Original "Teenage Werewolf." 7. Gilles Garnier, the Werewolf of Dôle. 8. Peter Stump and Others. 9. Were Werewolves Real? 10. Why Werewolves? 11. The Worst Werewolf Story of All (a retelling of a tale from Elliott O'Donnell's 1912 book Werwolves).
• Amazon review excerpt: In 2003, A. Tomsho wrote: "The book contains numerous ancient stories and accounts, eerie illustrations, and a wealth of obscure information on werewolf lore. ... Other bits of obscure folklore are included, such as the concept of using silver to kill werewolves is a myth. It describes how werewolves can be good, evil, or even detached from human morality all together depending on which region of the world they come from and who tells the tales. It dedicates a space to other shapeshifters as well, such as the werefox witches of Japan."

• Meet the Witches
• Published 1984. This is the stated first edition hardcover from J.B. Lippincott
• Jacket design by Harriett Barton, with illustration courtesy of New York Public Library
• Dedication: "To Michael and Cerridwen"
• Warning on first page: "This is a scary book. Witches in fairy tales eat children, and many people in the world today still believe that witches can make them sick or kill them. Furthermore, any book about witches has to talk about the time in our history when large numbers of real people were burned and tortured to death because they were accused of being witches. If you don't mind all that because you're curious to know where we got our ideas about witches, you will enjoy this book. But if you have nightmares about being chased by people with pointy teeth and you get very nervous when a black cat crosses your path, you had better find something else to do. Above all, do not read this book at night when you are alone."
• Chapter titles: 1. The Weird Sisters. 2. The First Spear and the Second. 3. The Worst Witch Story of All. 4. Fairy Tales, Fox-Witches, and Zombies. 5. Meet the Pagan Witch. 6. The Hammer of Witches. 7. Bring On the Devil's Armies! 8. Satanists, Keep Out.
• Excerpt from author's note: "The stories in this book are my own retellings of very old tales. 'The Worst Witch Story of All' is contained in The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius."
• Goodreads review: In 2017, Jennifer wrote: "Really well done. I was surprised how informative this book was and didn't sugar coat it for children. I would have loved to have read this in elementary school and turned in a book report on it."

Two final things. First, my used copy of Meet the Witches has this nifty sticker for the National Women's History Project, which was founded in 1980 and the history of which can be read about here.

And here's a rare opportunity for community cat Creamsicle, now 4½, 

to get into one of the "cats and books" photos.

SVE's 1973 "Strange Phenomena" supplemental books for students

These "Strange Phenomena" classroom books, all from 1973, might be among the more obscure volumes I've ever written about on Papergreat. It's surprising how little about them can be found on the internet at the moment, so I'm hoping this post can be a light in the dark for anyone who's curious.

The books were published by the Chicago-based Society for Visual Education, which was a subsidiary of The Singer Company (the sewing machine folks). My understanding is that they served as a supplement for a series of six SVE filmstrips that had synchronized sound from either a record or cassette. The series was made to be folded into a science or, especially, a language arts curriculum in junior or senior high schools. The six filmstrips were titled "The Loch Ness Monster," "Unusual Science Facts," "ESP," "Mind Over Matter," "ESP in Animals and Men," and "Precognition." Does anyone out there remember watching these in class in the mid-1970s??

The three supplementary books shown above were subtitled Monsters, Nature and Science and The Mind. All are 48 pages and staplebound. They measure 6¼ inches by 9¼ inches. Here's a closer look at the content and creators behind each one: 

Nature and Science

• Illustrated by Barbara Corey
• Designed by Michael Reid
• "Strange Rains" by Thane Gower, about odd weather phenomena
• "The Orchid Hunters" by Barbara Smetzer
• "Animal Sense" by Emilie Carter Cook
• "Where Death Strikes at Night" by James Vorhees, about Oroya fever
• "Vampire!" by Winifred Ho Roderman
• "The Big Blackout" by Jill Gaynes, about the 1965 Northeast blackout
• "The Bermuda Triangle" by Douglas Hunt
• "The Creature from the Past" by Winifred Ho Roderman, about coelacanths

The Mind

• Illustrated by George Roth
• Designed by Michael Reid
• "The Dream That Saved a Life" by Nancy Davis, about Josiah Wilbarger
• "ESP into the Past" by Thane Gower
• "The Flying Monk" by Douglas Hunt 
• "Is It in the Stars?" by Bettina Smith, about astrology
• "The Man with the Television Mind" by Michael Friedrich, about Peter Hurkos
• "Space Talk" by Thane Gower, partly about Ashtar Sheran
• "Pictures of His Mind" by Cheryl Lynn Rothwell, about Ted Serios
• "The Titanic Disaster" by Thomas Fields

Monsters

• Illustrated by Mary Nolin
• Designed by Michael Reid
• "Monsters, Old and New" by Thane Gower, about the Flatwoods monster  
• "The Windingo" by Barbara Smeltzer
• "The Loch Ness Monster" by Douglas Hunt
• "The Giant Squid" by Douglas Hunt
• "Sasquatch, The Man-Beast" by Nancy Davis
• "The Abominable Snowman" by Jill Gaynes
• "Cry Wolf or Monster" by Thane Gower, about the Beast of Gévaudan
• "The Mystery of Glamis Castle" by Jill Gaynes, about the Monster of Glamis

Here are six of the interior illustrations from the books, some of which are pretty unsettling, especially if you think about kids looking at them. First up is the Flatwoods monster.

RIP, Walter Koenig

Walter Koenig, who portrayed Pavel Chekov across the original TV series and numerous films in the Star Trek universe, died last night at his home in Los Angeles at age 90, surrounded by family members.

Koenig is pictured here portraying Chekov in the original series in a full-page photo that appears in the 1973 issue of The Monster Times magazine that I wrote about just last month for the show's 60th anniversary.

Ashar and I had the very nice fortune of meeting Koenig in April 2019 at Steel City Con in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. I think it was the final day of the show, and when we arrived first thing in the morning, the crowd was sparse but Koenig was already at his table. No one else was in line, so we both had the opportunity to chat with him for several minutes. Ashar discussed his recent spinal surgery, which Koenig was very curious about. He marveled at how far we've come with science and medicine, noting that people as recently as the mid-20th century simply didn't have access to some of the life-changing and life-saving medicine and surgeries that are available to us today. He told us a little bit about his mother, Sarah Koenig (née Strauss), who had been born in the Russian Empire in 1902 and later emigrated to the United States (Walter was born in 1936 in Chicago).  

It's not hard to find many wonderful stories about Walter Koenig being shared around the internet today. Personally, I cherished this series of skeets by actor George Takei, whose character Hikaru Sulu sat alongside Koenig's Chekov on the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise for so many fictional adventures:

"My heart is heavy. Walter Koenig, our Ensign Pavel Chekov, passed away early today. Walter and I met on the bridge of the Enterprise in the 1960s, and we stayed friends for nearly six decades. When Brad and I married in 2008, Walter stood beside us as our best man. Just last month, on Sept. 14, he turned 90, on the same day Brad and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. I will always treasure that he and I shared that date. Walter was more than Chekov. He was a writer, a teacher, a thoughtful man, and a loyal friend. To the fans who loved him for so many years, thank you. He loved you too. Rest well, my dear friend. Keep navigating a steady course. – George"

Orange and Nebula present 1977's "Ghosts and Ghouls"

One week until Halloween!

Here are the previous Contemporary Perspectives books in this series I've featured:

• This House is Haunted!
• The Case of the Ancient Astronauts
• Visions of the Future: Magic Boards
• The Abominable Snowman
• The Mysterious Ghosts of Flight 401

And now today's volume....

• Title: Ghosts and Ghouls
• Author: Gwen Risedorf. Full first name is Gwendolyn.  She also wrote a Contemporary Perspectives book titled Born Today, Born Yesterday: Reincarnation. She was born in 1923, but I can't find any other biographical information.
• Terrifying cover illustration: Lynn Sweat. This is the fifth Lynn Sweat cover I've featured, and they're all amazeballs. As far as biographical information, I haven't 100% established that this Lynn Sweat, who graduated from Lamar University and illustrated numerous Amelia Bedelia books, is the same Lynn Sweat who did the Contemporary Perspectives covers, but I have a strong suspicion that it is the same person.
• Incredible interior illustrations: Wayne Atkinson. Four of the illustrations are featured below.
• Publisher: A Contemporary Perspectives Inc. (CPI) book distributed by Raintree Children's Books, Milwaukee
• Year: 1977
• Pages: 48
• Format: Hardcover
• First paragraph: This could be called a book of "ghost stories." But the stories in this book are not the kind people make up to write about or tell their friends. At least we don't think they are made up. The ghost stories in this book have been reported by people who claim they truly did happen.
• People and events featured: 1. A haunting in central Connecticut of the Morgan family that's conveyed to the book's author by Ed and Lorraine Warren. 2. Anecdotes from ancient Egypt, Germany and Rome. 3. The "Ghouls of Clophill" in Bedfordshire, England. 4. Ghosts of Hampton Court in England. 5. The adventures of ghost hunter Hans Holzer. 6. An unattributed story involving a ghost with unfinished business haunting the Nolan family in Buffalo, New York. 7. Tales of mediums, seances and magic boards. 8. A short history of poltergeists and life after death featuring Raymond Moody. Yes indeed, all the stars of the 1970s commercialization of the paranormal are here! 
• Rating on Goodreads: There's only one rating on Goodreads and it gets 2 stars out of 5. The reviewer wrote this in 2016: "So I bought this book for 10 cents in my local library under KIDS books. First off this book is NOT for kids. Ed and Lorraine Warren are REAL people for sure, I've met their nephew ... on multiple occasions and it seems like the book makes it sound Ok to contact the dead which it is not ok to do this."
• Another review: A July 1979 "National Endowment for the Humanities Bibliography of Humanistic Reading for Grade Levels 1-8" notes that the book's original sale price was $5.49 and adds this short review: "A fascinating account of ghosts and ghouls that have appeared and annoyed people and how they have been eliminated. The chapter on ghosts of Hampton Court is especially interesting."

Unsettling eBay listing of the day

I cannot fathom why in the hell anyone would post a book in this condition on eBay, unless it were one of the first printings of the Gutenberg Bible. 

But here we have it. A deeply stained, warped and probably mold-carrying copy of the 1969 mass-market paperback Weird Unsolved Mysteries, by Eric Norman. And it can be all yours for just $13.08! (I can assure you that, if you truly must have this book, you can find copies for about the same price that don't look like they spent time in the hold of the Mary Celeste.)

The eBay listing states: "*Acceptable* Many Pictures before you decide. Check out our other items. Thank you and have a great day!"

I agree with the part in which there are many pictures.

Now, you may be saying out loud, "But Chris, you love gushing about the beauty of water-stained or damaged items! In fact, you were doing so just last week. Aren't you being hypocritical?"

To which I would reply:

1. Yes, but while beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I think you have to bring some aesthetic taste to the discussion. There are damaged items with inherent beauty ... and there is junk for the trash.

2. And, either way, I'm not trying to sell such items for thirteen American dollars! 

Maybe I'm just bad at capitalism? I dunno.

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